The only option available to us is to make our own peace among ourselves. The precedence set by Dr. John Garang de Mabior—the 1994 Chukudum Convention, the 2002 return of Riek Machar and Lam Akol, and the 2004 Rumbek Peace and Reconciliation Conference—could guide us to peaceful resolution of this foolhardy conflict in South Sudan by uniting the Mother SPLM of Government, SPLM-IO and the G-10.
By Aldo Ajou Deng Akuey, Juba, South Sudan
April 28, 2017 (SSB) — Violence destroys everything with devastating speed. Since December 2013, South Sudan has lost approximately close to 80,000 human lives; disabled hundreds of thousands young people; internally displaced over 1,000,000 citizens from their homes
Over three millions have emigrated to neighboring countries of Uganda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia and those who have already migrated to Europe, USA, Canada or Australia are not coming back; many children are in the streets of our towns and no support and above all, over 5,000,000 humans are starving and sick to death.
On the ground, the country has shut down all essential services: lack of drinking water and food, insecurity, education and health are not functioning at all levels, towns or periphery. The common question, among many questions is: What can we do to save our lives and the country?
The disaster is at its climax. The man made war destructiveness, the natural absence of rains, continuous drought since 2005 and no harvest and therefore no food production anywhere. We are dying alone and the world is watching! Our people since 2013 cried out for peace to Africans and to the world, but they responded by giving us their “Agreement for Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan, ARCSS”.
This ARCSS gave birth to three children: the Transitional Government of National Unity, TGoNU, Join Evaluation and Monitoring Commission, JEMC and UNMISS, commanding huge UN force of 17,000 troops only for protection of civilians, who are these civilians? The starving to death? We must together do something!
The only option available to us is to make our own peace among ourselves. The precedence set by Dr. John Garang de Mabior could guide us to peaceful resolution of this foolhardy conflict.
Dr. John disagreed with some leaders in Anyanya two, but he reconciled the SPLM with Anyanya two and unified the forces against the main enemy, “the minority clique.” as he nicknamed the Khartoum regime. Dr. John, alone, without mediators, brought Drs Riek and Lam Akol back to the SPLM and reinstated them back to the top leadership in 2002.
When Dr. John and General Salva administratively disagreed in 2004, the whole SPLM/SPLA leaders brought them to Rumbek and were happily reconciled. That saved the Movement, the people South Sudan and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, CPA, which gave us our freedom and independence. We can do the same. Let’s not “beat around the bush!”
Similarly, we can bring General Salva Kiir Mayardit, General Wani Igga, General Daniel Awet Akot, General Kuol Manyang, General (Molana) Nhial Deng Nhial and their supporters in the Mother SPLM and on the other side, invite Dr. Riek Machar Teny, Taban Deng Gai. Pagan Amuom, Deng Alor, Mama Rebecca Nyandeeng and their SPLM IO and SPLM FDs.
Like Dr. John you ought to reconcile these groups and, I am sure, the war shall be over. This war, by its present form, is political not tribal by any standards.
The nonsense and empty noise against the Jieng Council of Elders is only a lesson learned from the Cold War (1917-1989) disinformation syndrome and, may be, only may be, those scholars who might have read the book: “The Animal Farm” by George Orwel 1984, could be aware of the vicious-fictitious stories of the twentieth century.
Aldo Ajou Deng was a former cabinet minister in the government of Said el-Mahdi before joining the SPLM/A in the 1990s, and currently a senior official and intellectual brain behind the Jieng Council of Elders (JCE) in South Sudan.
The opinion expressed here is solely the view of the writer. The veracity of any claim made is the responsibility of the author, not PaanLuel Wël: South Sudanese Bloggers (SSB) website. If you want to submit an opinion article or news analysis, please email it to paanluel2011@gmail.com. SSB do reserve the right to edit material before publication. Please include your full name, email address and the country you are writing from.
PaanLuel Wël Media Ltd - South Sudan 
Reading through Hon. Aldo Ajou Deng’s article posted on Paanluel Wel’s, which dated April 28th, 2017 and titled “President Kiir should use Dr John Garang’s precedence to unite the Mother SPLM”, I couldn’t agree more with him on this because the Bible says (Ecclesiastes 8:3) “There is time for everything … a time for war and a time for peace”.
And without any doubt this time is a time for peace in South Sudan because we have already witnessed destruction of human lives, displacement of millions of citizens from their homes, insanity prevailed for so long, political class inability to resolve their differences amicably & peacefully and the list goes on. Therefore, Hon. Ajou’s call for President Kiir to use Dr John Garang’s precedence not only to unite the Mother SPLM but to also bring lasting peace in South Sudan is right. However, the question is will President Kiir listen to the voices of peace this time around Or will he stick to his usual way of a none compromise strategy which he has been using for quite sometimes now, is yet to be seen?
Of course, President Kiir has contributed immensely both to the liberation struggle as well as the independence of South Sudan therefore, he deserves undisputed credits unfortunately, he fails to understand that Dr Garang achieved so much not through war but through compromise. And it was through compromise where he negotiated and achieved the followings on behalf of South Sudanese people:
1. He negotiated in good faith with the leaders of Anyanya II and reconciled the SPLM with
Anyanay II to unify the forces against the main enemy, “The minority clique regime in Khartoum”
in the late 80s.
2. He single handily negotiated a just peace & reconciliation with both Dr Riek and Dr Lam Akol then reinstated them back to the top leadership in 2002.
3. He reconciled with Kiir himself in Rumbek in 2004 to the extent that he (Dr Garang) allowed
everyone to hire their grievances in public against him including General Kiir something that he
(Kiir) would never allowed to happen in his watch!
4. And lastly, he has successfully negotiated the Comprehensive Peace Agreement also known as
CPA in 2005 with the Regime in Khartoum which gave South Sudanese people their freedom &
independence.
Yet, President Kiir who have been very close to Dr Garang since the inception of the SPLM until his untimely death in 2005 does not in any way appreciate the importance of compromise as the only best option to resolve conflicts between leaders. Instead, President Kiir has a tendency for initiating violent since he took over the leadership of the SPLM either with whoever questioned his leadership’s style and in most cases with Dr Riek in particular then play a victim role at the same time which is undoubtedly contributed negatively to the current mess in the country.
In conclusion, to use Dr John Garang’s precedence to unite the Mother SPLM one need to be a genuine peace maker. Unfortunately, President Kiir unlike Dr John is not a genuine peace maker but sadly enough he is a true war maker who did not only squandered his good legacy for a search of a win-lose victory against his political rivals, not to mention the fact that he has also intentionally let go numerous opportunities to avoid the predicament that South Sudan is currently in!
We are all aware that the only reason why this devastating conflict is still dragging on is his (Kiir) inability to comprise with his rivals and worst of all he tends to sabotage any attempt to reconcile him with his perceived enemies! So, if he is a true peace maker as many of his die-hard supporters would want us to believe then I challenge him to organise a face- to- face meeting with Dr Riek among other opposition leaders outside South Sudan, negotiate with them in good faith and by doing just that you will see this senseless war will come to an end sooner than later.
Otherwise, the only way forward is that the Jieng Council of Elders – JCE as an advisory group to the President seriously need to advise General Salva Kiir to step down peacefully and give chance to someone else in his party who can use Dr John Garang’s precedence not only to unite the Mother SPLM but to also bring lasting peace in South Sudan as call for by Hon. Aldo Ajou Deng.
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